Coalition's idea for elected school board splits mayoral candidates

Advocacy group favors putting control of Chicago Public Schools in hands of teachers, parents

December 29, 2010|By Tara Malone and John Chase, Tribune reporters

Chicago's next mayor shouldn't control the city's public school system, a coalition of teachers, community leaders, parents and students said Wednesday, raising an idea that quickly splintered the major contenders for the office.

The group called for an elected school board that would geographically represent the city instead of the current panel the mayor appoints. The proposed board would dedicate seven of the 13 seats for parents and community members. Two would go to teachers and one each to an administrator, education researcher, paraprofessional and business person.

The push is in its early stages; advocates will need to persuade state legislators to overhaul the landmark 1995 law that put control of Chicago Public Schools into Mayor Richard Daley's hands. To that end, the group is lobbying "key legislators," said Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, who declined to say which lawmakers the group is targeting as sponsors.

The coalition also plans to make its case to the candidates vying to succeed Daley. The next mayor would have a major voice in whether the change moves forward in Springfield.

The five major mayoral candidates split on the idea of an elected school board, though none of them embraced the plan wholeheartedly.

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, ex-U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico, who served as president of the Chicago Board of Education, each said they opposed the idea and argued it could further politicize public education.

"We ought to have a mayor singularly accountable, along with a president, CEO and chief education officer," Chico said.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis said he supports the concept of an elected school board, although he didn't necessarily back the proposal presented Wednesday.

City Clerk Miguel del Valle said he supports the "eventual transition" to an elected school board. He said in order for it to be effective, however, the city needs to implement public financing of political campaigns.

In an open letter to the "citizens of Chicago," the coalition also recommended the board stagger its meetings between weekday mornings in district headquarters and evening sessions in area schools. A student advisory board also would be convened and report to district leaders.

The proposed changes would upend the system that allows Daley to appoint a school CEO and board members. The school board now includes seven members drawn from several top financial and consulting firms in the city.

But Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said that's no substitute for the voices of parents, teachers and students who are in the city's schools every day. The union is one of the main architects of the proposal.

What's more, the union wants the return of an educator to lead the Chicago education system. Daley has favored the CEO model of leadership, picking four school chiefs in 15 years who were not career educators.

"The top-down decisions made by non-educators have not shown the improvement," Lewis said.

Under Daley's stewardship, the city redefined the urban education model with many reforms that set a national precedent but were not always popular.

More magnet schools opened their doors, charter schools were introduced and city officials created a selective-enrollment high school — some of the top-ranked public schools statewide — in every region of the city. Private investment poured into city programs for everything from teaching training to the arts, as the business community and private foundations found a reform-minded ally in Daley.

Still, the myriad changes have not yielded systemic gains across the nation's third-largest school district.

While six of every 10 CPS students attend a school outside their community, many of the district's neighborhood schools struggle to serve a concentration of poor children.

Student performance improved on the so-called Nation's Report Card, or NAEP. In 2003, for instance, 10 percent of fourth-graders tested in Chicago scored at the proficient level or higher in math. That compares with 18 percent last year. But the city's performance lagged behind other large, urban public districts.

Rico Gutstein, an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who spoke in support of the plan, acknowledged the shift to an elected school board would not guarantee gains in student achievement or other results.

"But it provides a basis for a representative democracy," Gutstein said.

As for the odds of swaying lawmakers to end mayoral control, Brown said: "We've got more than a puncher's chance."